


A Little Friendly Advice

by mosylu



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: F/M, Modern AU, Peer Pressure, Rebelcaptain Valentine, Terrible Advice, Valentine's Day, good advice, sometimes from the same people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 05:46:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13675479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mosylu/pseuds/mosylu
Summary: Jyn and Cassian have this, like, thing. That's not a relationship. Or maybe it is. Whatever. For some reason, their friends all feel the need to give them advice about what to do for Valentine's Day with their not-really-a-relationship.Some of it is better than others.





	A Little Friendly Advice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [guineapiggie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/guineapiggie/gifts).



> Happy Rebelcaptain Valentine's Day! This bit of silliness brought to you by guineapiggie's request for "just because we’re kinda-sorta together now does NOT mean we are celebrating this stupid holiday" I hope this is what you had in mind!

"What the everloving fuck," Jyn said.

"Language," Bodhi said without looking up from his grocery list.

"Should I say it in German? French? Maybe Russian?"

"Don't say it at all, maybe?"

"Did you get a look at this aisle?"

He did look up then, blinking a little. The seasonal aisle of the grocery store looked like a pink bomb had exploded.

"It's the twenty-fucking-eighth of December," Jyn said. "And Valentine's Day has already shit all over this store."

Bodhi poked at a dead-eyed teddy bear with the words _I Wuv U Beary Much_ on its belly. It let out a shrill giggle that sounded like something out of a slasher flick, and he jumped backward. "They do seem to put it out earlier and earlier every year," he agreed, side-eying the bear. "But what's wrong with love?"

Jyn grunted. "Nothing. Love's all right, I guess. I just hate Valentine's Day. Stinking Hallmark holiday."

Bodhi batted at a blood-red balloon. "Thus sayeth the single lady."

"This has nothing to do with my being single. I just don't think you need a specific day to show someone that you love them, and - " She smacked the red balloon as it drifted near her face. "You shouldn't need all this lace and pink shit."

"If you had a boyfriend, you'd feel differently," Bodhi said.

"No, I wouldn't. And I don’t want a boyfriend.”

Bodhi smirked. "Not even Cassian Andor?"

Jyn's ears turned red. "Shut up. What? I don't know what you're talking about." She grabbed the cart and hustled it around the corner into the next aisle as if the tortilla chips were going to suddenly sell out forever.

* * *

"You should ask Jyn Erso out on a date on February 15th," Kay announced.

Normally Cassian was used to his roommate's random pronouncements, but this one made him bobble his soup bowl so badly that he spilled it all over the counter. "Kay! What? Where did that come from?"

"You very much wish to date Jyn Erso," Kay said. "I do not necessarily support this idea. She is small and aggressive and annoying. But I am resigned, because if you are dating her, perhaps you won't lie on the couch and sigh when romantic commercials come on the TV. Also I will have the apartment to myself more often, unless she insists on sleeping over here more than fifty percent of the time."

Cassian felt his face heat. He focused on wiping up the mess. "Why February 15th? It's not even January yet." And a month and a half felt like an impossibly long time to wait. Hell, the wait until the New Year's Eve party tomorrow felt too long, now that he knew she was going to be there.

"Ah. Yes. The February 15th date is because you dislike Valentine's Day. You don't trust its motives. You believe that any man who needs a holiday to tell his partner that he loves them is not entirely sincere in his feelings, and that it creates undue pressure in anyone who is presently uncertain of the depth of their feelings."

That much was true, but Cassian still didn't know why that had any bearing on the timing of whenever he was finally going to ask Jyn out.

Kay continued, "If you delay asking her out until February 15th, you will not be expected to do anything for the holiday."

"That's pretty cynical, Kay," Cassian said, and then remembered who he was talking to.

"I consider it practical."

"Do you think she'd say yes if I asked her out?"

"The only thing more annoying than the way you stare at Jyn is the way she stares at you," Kay said. "I believe the saying is, get it together."

* * *

At 2 pm on New Year's Day, Bodhi heard the front door open and then close. He raised his voice. "Well, hello, walk of shamer."

Jyn strolled through the living room, wearing the tight leather pants she'd worn the night before and a gigantic t-shirt that said Yavin City PD, definitely not what she'd worn the night before. She had beard burn on her neck, eye makeup smeared halfway to her hairline, and a giant smirk on her face. "You're assuming I'm ashamed."

Bodhi grinned back at her. It was nice to see her happy. "So, looking forward to Valentine's Day now you've got a boyfriend?"

The smirk dropped off her face. "I hooked up with him after a party. That doesn't mean we're dating now."

Bodhi was opening his mouth to say something skeptical when her phone buzzed. She looked down at it, blushed pink, and disappeared into her room, saying, "Hi," in a soft voice.

_"Doesn't mean we're dating now,"_ Bodhi mumbled mockingly, and turned up the volume on the TV.

* * *

When Cassian came out of his room for the second time that day, Kay gave him a furious look. "February fifteenth. I told you, didn't I? February fifteenth." He whipped a black piece of fabric at him. Cassian caught it automatically, and blushed when it turned out to be Jyn's bra.

"I didn't feel like waiting," he said.

"Now you'll have to plan a surprise for Valentine's Day for your girlfriend," Kay said. "And I'll have to listen to you planning a surprise for Valentine's Day for your girlfriend. It will take up a considerable amount of your brainpower and be very dull."

"Wha - look, we haven't talked about - "

"With that dopey look on your face? She's your girlfriend." Kay snorted. "Too long to wait," he mumbled, stomping off to his room. "Six weeks. Barely any time at all. And she's already leaving her undergarments here."

Cassian raised his voice. "Okay, this was once!"

* * *

Three weeks later, he handed Jyn her bra and said, "Can you _please_ stop hiding these for Kay to find. It drives him crazy."

"But it's funny," she said. She loved winding up Cassian's roommate. Although to be fair, Kay seemed annoyed that she basically existed.

"Yes, true, but I have to live with him. I'd like my girlfriend and my roommate to get along, thanks."

"Maybe this is how we get along," she suggested.

"Like no two humans in the history of the world?"

"Yep." She went up on her toes to kiss him, and between that and running late to work, it was at least four hours later that she realized he'd called her his girlfriend and she'd barely noticed. And now that she'd realized, the word wasn't quite as scalp-pricklingly horrifying as it usually was.

But she wasn't his girlfriend or anything. They were just . . . a thing.

* * *

Cassian didn't realize that he'd slipped until that night, when he went stock-still over the omelet pan and said aloud, "Shit, Kay, I called her my girlfriend."

Kay didn't seem to comprehend the significance. "So? She is over here constantly, you go out together up to three times a week, she's the most frequent contact in your phone, and you engage in obnoxiously regular coitus."

"Can you please not call it that?" It always made him feel like a lab rat.

"By what measure is she _not_ your girlfriend?"

Cassian fiddled with his spatula. "Um, the measure that we've never really had a define-the-relationship talk?"

"Then have it and stop whining to me," Kay said. "Your eggs are burning."

"Shit!"

Kay eyed him as he dragged the pan off the heat. "I knew it," he muttered. "Having a girlfriend has made you extremely slow-witted."

* * *

The little corner candy store was one of Jyn's favorite payday stops. So she felt personally betrayed when she walked in and there was a giant display of pre-wrapped Valentine's Day boxes, dead center of the store. "What's this?" she demanded of the giant man behind the register.

"One of our most profitable seasons of the year, is what," Baze growled.

Jyn grinned, reassured. Clearly Baze felt the same way she did about Valentine's Day, even though he was sharing counter space with a bouquet of chocolate roses. She knew there was a reason she liked coming here.

Chirrut came out from the back. "Is that Jyn's voice?" he asked, turning his blind eyes toward Jyn at the counter.

"Yeah, it's me," Jyn said. "Hi, Chirrut."

"Ah, good, I've been waiting for you to come in. Here." Moving with unerring instinct, he opened the display case from the back and plucked a small square of fudge from a display that said, NEW! "Taste," he said, passing it over the counter on a square of white paper.

Jyn squinted at the fudge. "What's in it?"

"Taste," Chirrut commanded again.

She took a bite. "Fuck me," she said. "That's good. Is that orange in there? And amaretto maybe?"

Chirrut smiled mysteriously. Baze made him post any allergens, but other than that, his candy recipes were deep, dark secrets. "So, half a pound?"

"Mmm. Yes. Oh, my god."

"So how is your young man?" Chirrut asked. "The one who cleaned us out of lemon fudge?"

Jyn fought off a blush. "He's not - we're just - he's all right."

Baze eyed her over his Mandarin-language newspaper. "He's not your young man? What millennial stupidity is this?"

Jyn crossed her arms. "I'm not cut out to be anybody's girlfriend. Cassian and I are having fun, is all."

Baze grunted. "She's as bad as you," he said to Chirrut.

"Aren't you two married?"

"We weren't in the early nineties," Baze said. "Just friends, he said."

"I was young and foolish," Chirrut said with immense dignity.

"For _three years_."

Jyn twisted the scrap of paper that had come with the fudge into a tiny ball with the approximate density of a neutron star. "Huh," she said casually. "What changed your mind?"

"I wore him down," Baze said.

Jyn recoiled. Something about the idea of being worn down, of submitting, of giving in -

"Stop that," Chirrut said. "No. I made a choice. I could be alone and safe and go on the way I always had, or I could be with him. I decided I wanted him."

Baze cleared his throat. "Glad you did," he said gruffly, and Chirrut smiled to himself.

Jyn twisted the paper tighter. "How did you know you could do it, though? Be together and not mess it up?"

Baze shrugged. "Didn't. But it's worked out so far."

That was . . . not helpful.

Chirrut fiddled with the sound system for a few minutes, then held up a finger. “I recommend the advice of the ancient masters, young one.” He hit the button, and a woman yowled, _I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want -_

"What," Jyn said, and Chirrut fluttered his fingers in a wave good-bye before strolling into the back and more of his arcane, stupendous fudge experiments.

“Since when does Chirrut like the Spice Girls?” she asked Baze under the strains of pure manufactured late nineties cheese. She poked through the pre-packaged candies on a rack and pulled out a bag of toffee peanuts, ripping the top open. Baze would ring her up for it in a minute.

With a long suffering look, he said, “Since 1996."

“You know they’re getting back together,” Jyn remarked.

He let out a soft groan.

"Seriously," Jyn said, munching on her toffee peanuts. "You must be crazy about him."

“When you love someone you’d rather put up with their foolishness than anybody else’s.” He looked over as the song switched to "2 Become 1." “Not too often, mind you.” He reached out and hit buttons. A man shrieked, _Shot through the heart, and you're to blame . . ._

Baze nodded and gave his paper a little shake. “Ah. Bon Jovi. Better.”

* * *

She felt like an idiot for even considering the earworm that Chirrut had gifted her with, but actually it was kind of useful. If you didn't count the rest of the song, that was. That just made no sense.

"Bodhi," she said. "I think I want to be with Cassian. Dammit."

“Really,” he said. “Because him spending three nights a week over here didn’t clue me in to that.”

“No, I mean, like a - “ She grimaced. “Like a relationship.”

"Is that why you knocked on my door in the middle of the night? Because I could have told you that. In daylight."

She scowled, crossing her arms. The thing was, being somebody's girlfriend didn't sound so bad if it was Cassian. And that was unsettling all on its own.

"If you want to agonize over this, can we do it later? Like maybe in four hours when normal people are awake?" Bodhi gave a jaw-cracking yawn.

Jyn shook her head. "Fine. We're dating. But I tell you one thing, if he tries to do some big hearts-and-flowers thing for Valentine's Day, I'm dumping him," she said, already on her way back to bed.

* * *

"So," Cassian said.

"Hm?" She rooted around in the takeout box for the last piece of General Tso's chicken.

"The other day I called you my girlfriend," he said.

She chewed slowly. "Right," she said. "Yeah, I noticed. That's, uh. That's all right. I guess you're my boyfriend."

He studied her in that quiet way of his. "You're okay with it."

Her stomach didn't fold in on itself when he said it. Not like any of the other men she'd ever had things with, who wanted to make it a capital-R relationship and push her into the girlfriend box. This was just Cassian. Who somehow liked her exactly the way she was. "Yeah," she said. "I mean. Might as well call it what it is, right?"

"Okay," he said. "Good."

She poked her chopsticks into the empty container. "Good," she echoed.

He reached out and grabbed her hand, and tugged until she scooted across the couch and snuggled up next to him. Then he kissed her deeply.

"Ugh," she said, "garlic breath," and kissed him back until they totally lost the plot of the movie they were watching.

"Hey," she said some time later.

"Mmm?"

"Valentine's Day, right?"

He went very still under her. "Yes? What about it?"

"I'm not much for it," she said. "So you don't have to worry. Even with the girlfriend stuff."

"Ah," he said after a long moment. "Right."

She flopped back against his chest, satisfied. Right, that was sorted.

* * *

“Oh my god,” Kes said. “You’re doomed.”

“What?" Cassian said, shutting his computer down, already looking forward to seeing Jyn. He was going to teach her how to cook. She should know how to make chilequiles, since she always asked for them when she was at his place. "She said she’s not much for Valentine’s Day. So I don’t have do anything. Which is good because I don’t really like the hearts and flowers stuff anyway.”

“You idiot, when she says she doesn't expect anything for Valentine's Day, that means your ass better step up."

“You’ve never met her. Where are you getting this, old episodes of Friends?”

Kes’s wife Shara perched on the corner of his desk. “Hey, babe," she said, dropping a kiss on Kes's upturned, adoring face. "What are we talking about?”

“Cassian’s new girlfriend told him not to worry about Valentine’s Day. And get this. He’s not going to do anything.”

“Oh my god,” Shara said. “You’re doomed. Get ready to be single again.”

“Excuse me for listening to her,” Cassian said, and wondered if they were right.

* * *

“So, you had the DTR," Leia said over after-work drinks. "Well done."

Jyn eyed her. As usual, she was drinking some mysterious cocktail that had more ingredients than a wedding cake. "Thank you, Princess."

"Don't call me Princess," Leia said automatically. "Now, about Valentine's Day."

"Oh, that's covered," Jyn said, taking a swig of her beer. "I said I wasn’t much for all that stuff.”

“And?”

“And what?"

"What did he say?”

“He said, ‘Ah, right.’” She imitated his deep voice and his soft accent and got lost in dreaming about them for a moment. The man could read a cereal box to her and she’d get turned on.

“Ah, right?” Leia echoed. "That's a good sign."

"Yeah, means I don't have to worry about it. Pressure's off."

Leia blinked a few times. "What. You. Oh." She turned to Bodhi. "This is above my pay grade. Please take over."

"Take over what?" Jyn said. "We're not doing Valentine's Day and that's great."

Bodhi covered his face with his hands. “Jyn. Jyn, Jyn."

"Say my name like that one more time," she suggested. "Go on."

"Don’t you get it?”

“What? What is there to get? I said we can skip Valentine’s Day and he’s okay with that.” How many more times did she have to explain it?

“He said ah right, which means he’s planning something amazing and elaborate because he’s bonkers about you.”

Jyn held up a finger. “Okay, first, really? You really think he’s bonkers about me?”

“Over the moon," he said, and Leia nodded.

She melted briefly, then rallied. “And second, what the hell kind of sitcom world do you live in, Bodhi Rook?”

"Leia," Bodhi said. "Back me up here."

Leia sipped her cocktail daintily. Princess. "Be prepared to get romanced, Erso."

"Shit," Jyn said.

* * *

Cassian got tired of hearing Kes fret about what to get Shara for Valentine's Day. "Here," Cassian said, parking their patrol car in front of a candy store. "Let's go in here. Jyn showed it to me."

He found himself standing in front of a display of Valentine's Day bonbons, shrink-wrapped in red plastic. He poked through the various mixes, trying to picture himself handing one of them to Jyn in a week's time.

The thing was, none of it looked like Jyn. Not the heart-shaped boxes, not the balloons at the grocery store or the bouquets at the florists. (Did Jyn even like flowers, in general?) She didn't wear jewelry and she didn't go for fancy dinners. And he could just imagine her face if he bought her a giant teddy bear.

But he was crazy about her. He could admit that to himself, at least. And while he still thought Valentine's Day was a manufactured pressure cooker of romance, after listening to all his friends' advice, not doing anything for her on the fourteenth of February felt as good as saying he didn't care. But _what_ to do?

"Ah, Officer, you return." Chirrut materialized at his elbow, holding out a square of fudge. "Taste."

Feeling flattered - not everyone got samples pressed on them in this store - Cassian took it. "Mmm," he said. Bourbon and maybe cranberries? And something else, he wasn't sure, but it was amazing.

"Good? It's our new flavor. I'll have Baze wrap some for you. What brings you in today?"

He waved vaguely and took another bite of the fudge. "My partner, uh. His wife. Valentine's Day."

"Hmmmm," Chirrut said, and listened for a moment as Kes waxed rhapsodic about Shara to Baze, who looked as if he really just wanted Kes to make a selection and shut up.

Chirrut yelled something in Cantonese, and Baze nodded before moving down the counter and pointing out the bin of chocolate-covered espresso beans.

Cassian's brows went up. Shara loved chocolate-covered espresso beans. "What - ?"

"I'm very good at my job," Chirrut grinned.

"Can I ask you something?"

"The recipes are secret," Chirrut said automatically.

"No, not that. I wanted to know - how long have you two been married?"

"Legally? Since June twenty-seventh, 2015. Emotionally? For the past twenty-five years."

That had to be a good sign. Anybody who was with a partner for that long had to know how to do Valentine's Day. And a candy-maker? It had to be spectacular. "What did you get him for Valentine's Day?"

Chirrut sighed. "Bon Jovi tickets," he muttered under the sound of Baze scooping out what sounded like three pounds of beans. "One for him and one for me."

Cassian stared. "I'm sorry, what?"

Chirrut shrugged. "The man loves his hair bands. And I love that man."

"That's romantic?"

Chirrut shrugged again. "Romance is strictly defined by the two people being romantic."

Cassian blinked a few times, and then said, "That's it. I know what I'm going to do."

"They're all sold out," Chirrut said. "And I don't think Jyn likes Bon Jovi."

"No, I'm not getting her concert tickets. But I do know something she'll like."

* * *

Jyn tossed the phone aside and slumped into the couch. "He planned something for Valentine’s Day."

"So that's it, then, " Bodhi said. "Relationship over."

"What?"

"You said, and I quote, if he thinks we're going to do hearts and flowers and shit, I'm dumping him right there."

“You said what?” Leia asked.

"What? When did I - I wouldn't - " Jyn sputtered to a halt and told herself that it would be rude to kick the asses of the people hanging out in her apartment. No matter how smugly they were looking at her. "Well. Things have changed."

"So," Bodhi said. "You're not dumping him."

"I don't want to," she muttered. "I mean, right, yeah, I'd much rather hang out here in my sweatpants, watching the Ronda Rousey fight if I can scrape up the cash, but if he wants to take me somewhere, I guess - " She squirmed. "I guess I can go do the whole Valentine's Day . . . thing. Since I'm his girlfriend and all. I mean, at least I get to spend time with him."

"Awwww," Luke said.

"Shut up," Jyn said, but without much heat, because Bodhi's new boyfriend had the air of a happy, unhateable puppy. One day the universe would kick him in the teeth and he’d probably become a bitter old man, but right now he was still starry-eyed, and not just when he was around Bodhi, either.

"So where is he taking you?" Leia wanted to know.

"I don't know. He said it was a surprise." She frowned at her phone as it buzzed again. "And that . . . I don't have to dress up." She looked up. "That means I have to dress up, doesn't it? Good girlfriend and all."

All three of them nodded.

* * *

When he answered the door, his welcoming smile froze, wavered, and then collapsed into confusion. "I - you didn't have to dress up."

Jyn resisted the urge to tug at her tight green dress, purchased for more money than she could strictly afford after a marathon shopping session where she and Leia had almost killed each other. "This old thing," she said.

"Not that you don't look nice," he said hastily. "But - "

"I know, I know what you said, and it was really sweet," she told him, wobbling through the door on shoes that were basically a broken ankle waiting to happen. For some reason flats just _didn't go_ with this dress, according to Leia. "But I figured if you went to all the trouble of thinking up a nice night out, I might as well dress for the occasion." She smiled brightly up at him. "So where are we going?" Please don't let it be someplace with more than two forks. Or anything she could spill on this stupid dress, which she cherished hopes of returning to the store after tonight.

"We're not," he said.

She blinked at him. "Say again?" At that point, she realized he was wearing a Club América jersey and his most disreputable jeans, and no shoes or socks. If they were going out, it was to somewhere not much fancier than the Pollo Loco on the corner.

Awesome.

"We're staying in," he said. "Kay is, and I quote, preserving himself from the sight of our venal festivities. He won't be back until tomorrow night at least."

"Oh, thank god," she said, reaching behind her to unzip the dress. Oh, fuck. "Hey, can you get my zip? I can't reach, and this thing isn't conducive to just pushing up the skirt."

He laughed so hard his eyes disappeared into happy crinkles. "No," he gasped, "not for that. I mean, if you want to do that later, I'm definitely in, but I actually planned something else that I think you'll really like."

She dropped her arms. "What?"

He went to the coffee table and picked up the remote control to the TV, turning it on. She looked at the screen and almost fell over on the spot. "The fight!"

"Ronda Rousey, right?"

"Yes," she squealed, lurching over on her heels. "Oh my god, you got the fight on pay-per-view."

"And I've ordered pizza, and cheesesticks, and I have beer in the fridge. And a giant variety box of fudge from that candy store, because they inspired me."

She spun and almost fell over again. Seriously, these shoes were a danger to all womankind. "That's Valentine's Day? That's your big surprise for Valentine's Day?"

He nodded and ducked his head. "Uh. I know it's not - most people don't - "

She kicked off her shoes and jumped across the coffee table and into his arms. Caught off guard, he collapsed onto the couch, but when she kissed him, he kissed her back.

She pulled away. "This is really what you want to do?" she asked him. "It's not very romantic. I mean, most people wouldn't consider this romantic."

He played with her hair. "I like pizza and beer and spending time with you," he said. "And I'm willing to learn about WWE. This is perfect for both of us."

She looked down at the slinky, overpriced dress. "I feel really stupid now."

He dropped his hand to her hip, smoothing it over the silky material. "You look beautiful," he said. "You bought this just for whatever you thought I had planned? Even though you hate Valentine's Day. And getting dressed up. And high heels."

She shrugged, ducking her face into his shoulder. "You wanted something special for today," she said. "I thought that since we're, you know, dating now. Well, it wouldn't kill me to enter into the romantic spirit."

He kissed her. "I can go buy roses if you want." He looked dismayed for a moment. "The selection might not be - "

"They make me sneeze," she said. "Roses. Most flowers."

"Ah," he said.

She squirmed as some of the lace itched her. "I know you like it, but would you mind awfully if I took this off?"

"Not at all," he said, and reached up to tug the zipper down her spine.

She let out a sigh as the dress loosened and climbed off his lap. "I'm going to borrow a pair of your boxers and a shirt," she announced, heading for his room.

He braced his hands behind his head and grinned at her. "Now that I'm afraid I can't allow."

She looked at her him over her shoulder, grinned, and flipped him off. He laughed.

"Fight starts at seven sharp and the pizza should be here any minute," he called out. "Don't take too long!"

* * *

Many hours later, after an amazing fight, wonderfully greasy food, and excellent sex, Jyn lay on the couch under a large, fuzzy blanket, with Cassian's arms wrapped around her.

Her phone buzzed. She craned her neck until she found her purse. It was within reach, so she stretched out her arm and rooted around inside until she could retrieve her phone.

It was Bodhi. _So how was your Valentine's Day?_

She smiled to herself and quickly thumb-typed, **Best ever** , and dropped it back on the floor before snuggling into Cassian's warmth. He hummed and pressed his lips to her neck, and she smiled again.

With the right person, she guessed, the day of hearts and flowers didn't have to be so bad.

FINIS


End file.
